Cambridge family pleads for help to bring great-grandfather Gordon Griffiths back from hospital in Abu Dhabi

04/04/14 - The family and supporters of 83 year old Gordon Griffiths who is currently ill in hospital in Abu Dhabi without travel insurance, the group are trying to raise money to bring him home. Gordon's daughter Isa Arnold pictured in the front. Picture

The family of a great-grandfather stuck in an Abu Dhabi hospital with pneumonia is pleading with the public to support a fundraising drive to get him home.

Gordon Griffiths, of Langley Upper Green near Saffron Walden, has been stranded in intensive care in the United Arab Emirates capital for more than five weeks after flying there to visit his daughter Liz on February 12.

The 83-year-old was accompanied on his 20th annual trip by another of his children, Isa Arnold, of Foster Road, Cambridge, but about two weeks after arriving was rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties – and he continues to fight for his life.

Liz is also struggling to afford her dad’s hospital bills after Gordon’s travel insurers said his care was the result of an ongoing illness.

Isa, 44, who returned to Cambridge on March 16 on her own, told the News: “This was going to be the last time dad went because of his age, and my sister told him she would visit instead, but he said I should go with him.

“I had never had a passport or even been on a plane before, but I decided I would go with him and my sister was so surprised and happy to see us.

“Before we went, he saw his doctor and got more inhalers for his asthma and bronchitis, but after a few days he started to find it hard to breathe and started to look pale.”

On February 27 he was taken to hospital and found to have pneumonia which had developed into sepsis, along with kidney problems, meaning he would need oxygen for the rest of his life and was banned from commercial flights.

Isa continued: “It was meant to be a family holiday but we spent all our time at the hospital. I had hoped he could come back with me but he got a worse bout of pneumonia and they had to make a hole in his neck to get tubing to run into his lungs.

“Saying goodbye to him was the worst thing ever. All I could do was kiss him on the head and pat his arm, as we weren’t allowed to spend long with him.

“My dad had never been in hospital before and he was very scared – he did not want to be there.” Gordon’s friends and family in and around Cambridge, including 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, have organised a ‘Help Gordon Home’ fundraiser for Sunday, April 13, at Trumpington Pavillion between 11am and 3pm with all welcome.

The event will include a range of attractions, such as a cake sale, bric-a-brac, bouncy castle, barbecue, card making and tombola, with money raised going toward medical bills and a fund to fly Gordon home on an air ambulance.